Ubuntu main man Mark Shuttleworth says plans are on track to produce smartphones running a mobile variant of the Ubuntu Linux OS by October 2013, but developers should be able to start working with the platform even sooner.

A version of Ubuntu for smartphones that runs on the Samsung Galaxy Nexus handset is expected to be available for download in late February, Shuttleworth toldThe Wall Street Journal on Tuesday.Why that 16-month-old device and not something else was not immediately clear, although the fact that the Galaxy Nexus was distributed as one of Google's unlocked "pure Android" flagship phones may have something to do with it.